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Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in 5G has many advantages; however, one of the disadvantages is that the superposition of a large number of subcarriers leads to a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmit signal. A high PAPR results in high-power amplifier distortion and performance degradation. The partial transmit sequence (PTS) algorithm is commonly used for PAPR reduction. It enumerates all combinations of phase factors, weighs the signal using each phase factor combination, and finds the set of phase factors that minimizes the PAPR value of the OFDM signal. The advantage of the PTS is that it determines the optimal solution through enumeration; however, its major drawback is the higher complexity caused by the use of enumeration. Some studies have introduced the discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm instead of enumeration to determine the optimal solution of the PTS algorithm. As an excellent optimization method, the DPSO algorithm represents each individual as a solution during the optimization. Through iterative updates of the initial population, individuals in the population continuously move closer to the optimal solution. This approach significantly reduces complexity compared with the exhaustive enumeration used in the traditional PTS algorithm. However, the disadvantage of the general DPSO algorithm is that it can result in premature and early convergence, which leads to degradation of the PAPR reduction performance. In this study, we propose an improved method based on the general DPSO-based PTS algorithm, and the improved algorithm MDPSO-PTS adopts dynamic time-varying learning factors, which can find the optimal combination of phase factors more efficiently. The MDPSO-PTS algorithm expands the search space when seeking the optimal combination of phase factors. This avoids the drawback of premature convergence commonly observed in general DPSO-PTS algorithms, preventing early consideration of local optima as global optima. A comparative simulation of the improved MDPSO-PTS algorithm with the general DPSO-PTS algorithm shows that the improved algorithm has stronger PAPR reduction, whereas the complexity remains basically unchanged. A comparative simulation with the traditional PTS algorithm shows a significant reduction in complexity, with only a slight, acceptable loss of reduction performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two one-dimensional nanowires, Fe3O4 and MnO2 nanowires, were modified with polyphosphazene-derived carbon (PZSC) using in situ polymerization and high-temperature calcination methods. PZSC coated with MnO2 nanowire (MnO2/PZSCNW) was designed as the positive electrode, while PZSC coated with Fe3O4 nanowire (Fe3O4/PZSCNW) was designed as the negative electrode. Both MnO2/PZSCNW (+) and Fe3O4/PZSCNW (−) exhibit much larger specific capacities than the corresponding MnO2 and Fe3O4 nanowires, reaching 75.5 mAh g−1 and 75.9 mAh g−1, respectively. The maximum specific capacity, power and energy density of MnO2/PZSCNW (+)//Fe3O4/PZSCNW (−) in alkaline electrolyte are up to 63.2 mAh g−1, 429.6 W kg−1 and 53.7 Wh kg−1, respectively. After 10 000 cycles, the cell maintains 100% capacity. The experimental results indicate that the polyphosphazene-derived carbon coating can significantly improve the electrochemical performance, providing a feasible solution for constructing high-performance supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to assess studies on circular RNAs (circRNAs) in the chemoresistance of triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) and provide relevant references for the development of new TNBC chemotherapy sensitivity biomarkers and therapeutic targets. The PubMed, Embase, Web of Knowledge, Cochrane Library, and four Chinese databases were searched up to January 27, 2023, and studies related to TNBC chemoresistance were included. The basic characteristics of the studies and the mechanisms of circRNAs in regulating TNBC chemoresistance were analyzed. A total of 28 studies published between 2018 and 2023 were included, and the chemotherapeutics included adriamycin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, 5‐fluorouracil, lapatinib, and so forth. A total of 30 circRNAs were identified, 86.67% (n = 26) of these circRNAs were reported to act as microRNA (miRNA) sponges to regulate chemotherapy sensitivity, while only two circRNAs (circRNA‐MTO1 and circRNA‐CREIT) interacted with proteins. A total of 14, 12, and 2 circRNAs were reported to be associated with chemoresistance to adriamycin, taxanes, and 5‐fluorouracil, respectively. Six circRNAs were found to act as miRNA sponges that promote chemotherapy resistance by regulating the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway. CircRNAs participate in the regulation of TNBC chemoresistance and can be used as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for improving chemotherapy sensitivity. However, further studies are needed to confirm the role of circRNAs in TNBC chemoresistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of serum uric acid as a factor in the recurrence of ischemic stroke stays unclear. Several studies have examined the relationship between serum uric acid and recurrence of acute ischemic stroke, with various results. Therefore, we carried out a meta-analysis to have a look at the relationship between serum uric acid levels and the potential danger of stroke recurrence in patients with ischemic stroke. Relevant experiments have been recognized via looking out the electronic databases and conference sessions. This present study included a case-control study of the impact of uric acid on the recurrence of ischemic stroke. After the assessment of eligibility, this meta-analysis included four articles in which 2452 patients with ischemic stroke were tested for their level of serum uric acid. The results obtained from this meta-analysis confirmed that improved uric acid concentrations were extensively and independently related to an accelerated and higher risk of recurrent stroke. The pooled OR (95% CI) was 1.80 (1.47, 2.20) (p<0.001). Overall, this meta-analysis shows a relationship between uric acid concentration and stroke recurrence rate. Furthermore, high uric acid levels could enhance the recurrence rate of ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moth search algorithm (MS) is a relatively new metaheuristic optimization algorithm which mimics the phototaxis and Lévy flights of moths. Being an NP-hard problem, the 0–1 multidimensional knapsack problem (MKP) is a classical multi-constraint complicated combinatorial optimization problem with numerous applications. In this paper, we present a hybrid learning MS (HLMS) by incorporating two learning mechanisms, global-best harmony search (GHS) learning and Baldwinian learning for solving MKP. (1) GHS learning guides moth individuals to search for more valuable space and the potential dimensional learning uses the difference between two random dimensions to generate a large jump. (2) Baldwinian learning guides moth individuals to change the search space by making full use of the beneficial information of other individuals. Hence, GHS learning mainly provides global exploration and Baldwinian learning works for local exploitation. We demonstrate the competitiveness and effectiveness of the proposed HLMS by conducting extensive experiments on 87 benchmark instances. The experimental results show that the proposed HLMS has better or at least competitive performance against the original MS and some other state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms. In addition, the parameter sensitivity of Baldwinian learning is analyzed and two important components of HLMS are investigated to understand their impacts on the performance of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some progress has been made in understanding the pathways related to rice heading, but their applications to breeding japonica rice varieties adapted to grow in low-latitude areas ("indica to japonica") are limited. We edited eight adaptation-related genes via a lab-established CRISPR/Cas9 system in a japonica variety, Shennong265 (SN265). All T0 plants and their progeny bearing random mutation permutations were planted in southern China and screened for changes in heading date. We found that the double mutant of Days to heading 2 (DTH2) and CONSTANS 3 (OsCO3) (dth2-osco3), two CONSTANS-like (COL) genes, showed significantly delayed heading under both short-day (SD) and long-day (LD) conditions in Guangzhou and manifested great yield increase under SD conditions. We further demonstrated that the heading-related Hd3a-OsMADS14 pathway was down-regulated in the dth2-osco3 mutant lines. The editing of the COL genes DTH2 and OsCO3 greatly improves the agronomic performance of japonica rice in Southern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of highly mineralized reinjection water has low gel strength and poor stability, and the above problems are more prominent under high-temperature reservoir conditions. Based on the temperature resistance and salt tolerance polymer TSRP and phenolic resin crosslinking agent, a TSRP temperature resistant weak gel system suitable for high mineralized reinjection water was developed, and the temperature resistance mechanism of the TSRP weak gel system was tested by its temperature resistance and injection ability. The migration, retention, and plugging of the TSRP weak gel system in heterogeneous reservoirs were studied through micropore throat migration and plugging characteristics and dual-pipe parallel oil displacement experiments. The results showed that: under the condition of polymer concentration 2000 mg/L, polymer: crosslinking agent: glue promoter 1:1.5:1, the TSRP weak gel system prepared by using mineralized 12132.9 mg/L reinjection water can remain stable after 95°C aging at high temperature of TSRP. Through microscopic simulation, a glass etching model TSRP weak gel system showed good migration ability and plugging performance. In comparison with the two pipes parallel oil displacement experiment, the KY gel system injected the same amount of PV at 95°C and 20000 mg/L in the Y1L block, the average recovery of the TSRP gel system increased by 22.3% after injection of polymer gel, and the KY gel system was only 18.2%; When the same amount of PV was injected in Z1L block, 95°C and 22000 mg/L, the average recovery of TSRP gel system increased by 24.35% after injection of polymer gel, and the KY gel system was only 17.15%, that is, under higher salinity, the TSRP gel system showed better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbiotic microbiomes of Sphagnum have been confirmed to play a fundamental role in carbon and nitrogen cycles, however, little is known about microbiomes associated with other bryophytes in subtropical peatland ecosystems. To explore the differences in community structure, metabolic potential and interaction relationship of bacterial microbiomes associated with different bryophytes species, the gametophytes of three bryophyte species (Sphagnum palustre, Aulacomnium androgynum, and Polytrichum commune) and their underlying peat sediments were collected from the subtropical Dajiuhu Peatland and subjected to Illumina high-throughout sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. Results showed that bacterial diversity was lowest in S. palustre, the dominant moss species, among the three moss species investigated in Dajiuhu Peatland. Bacterial communities from bryophytes clearly separated with those from sediments as indicated by both phylogenetic and taxonomical approaches. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) identified 30 and 36 indicator taxa in mosses and peat sediments. Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia and Thermoleophilia significantly enriched in S. palustre, A. androgynum and P. commune, Chloroflexi, Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria subgroup 6 was indicator taxa for corresponding underlying sediments, respectively. Despite of these differences in compositions, bacterial functional structures were similar among all bryophytes, such as abundant aerobic heterotrophs, rare nitrifiers and denitrifiers. This phenomenon was also observed among the underlying sediments. Network analysis indicated that Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria located in the center of network and exerted strong interactions to other taxa. The sub-network of bacterial communities in sediments was more connected and microbial groups were more competitive than those in bryophytes subnetwork. Our results offer new insight into the community structure, ecological function and interaction pattern of bacterial microbiomes in the Dajiuhu Peatland across different habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bathyarchaeota are believed to have roles in the carbon cycle in marine systems. However, the ecological knowledge of Bathyarchaeota is limited in peatland ecosystems. Here, we investigated the vertical distribution of Bathyarchaeota community structure using quantitative PCR and high-throughput sequencing technology of ribosomal 16S rRNA gene integrated with detailed chemical profiling in the Dajiuhu Peatland, central China. Eight archaeal phyla were observed in peat samples, which mainly composed of Bathyarchaeota with a mean relative abundance about 88%, followed by Thaumarchaeota (9%). Bathyarchaeota were further split into 17 subgroups, and some subgroups showed habitat specificity to peat horizons with distinct lithological and physicochemical properties, for example, Bathy-6 and Bathy-15 had preference for the acrotelm, Bathy-5b, Bathy-16, and Bathy-19 were enriched in the catotelm, Bathy-5a, Bathy-8, and Bathy-11 were specific for the clay horizon. This spatial distribution pattern of archaeal communities along peat profile was mainly influenced by water content as indicated by RDA ordination and permutational MANOVA, whereas organic matter content exclusively affected Bathyarchaeota distribution along the peat profile significantly. The abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA genes ranged from 105 to 107 copies per gram dry sediment, and the highest archaeal biomass was observed in the periodically oxic mesotelm horizon with more dynamic archaeal interaction relationship as indicated by the network analysis. Bathyarchaeota dominated the archaeal interaction network with 82% nodes, 96% edges, and 71% keystone species. Our results provide an overview of the archaeal population, community structure, and relationship with environmental factors that affect the vertical distribution of archaeal communities and emphasize the ecology of bathyarchaeotal lineages in terrestrial peatland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rumor, as an important form of information dissemination, has always been a research hotspot in the field of complex networks. How to better understand the rules of rumor propagation and establish a practical dissemination model is a significant challenge. To further study the state transfer in information transmission, this paper established the Ignorant-Spreader-Stifler-Transition (ISRT) model, introduced different influence mechanisms and calculate the influence rate accurately by function. Specifically, (1) Based on SIR model, this paper introduces the transition state, considering that transition may awaken spontaneously to spread rumors due to individual cognition. In this paper, the ratio of the current communicator and the degree of doubt of the transition are introduced into the spontaneous arousal function. (2) This paper redefines the propagation probability function and the forgetting probability function, and introduces the time function to describe the rate from the propagator to the restorer. (3) Due to the presence of highly emotional leader propagators in the network who would awaken the immune to spread rumors again, the model added a link from the recovering person to the infected person. Finally, the nonpropagation equilibrium point E 0 and propagation equilibrium point E 1 are obtained by establishing the mean field equation. The experimental results show that different influencing mechanisms can more accurately locate the stage change of rumor transmission, which provides theoretical support for more effective control of information transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimension reduction is a critical technology for high-dimensional data processing, where Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and its variants are effective supervised methods. However, LDA prefers to feature with smaller variance, which causes feature with weak discriminative ability retained. In this paper, we propose a novel Ratio Sum for Linear Discriminant Analysis (RSLDA), which aims at maximizing discriminative ability of each feature in subspace. To be specific, it maximizes the sum of ratio of the between-class distance to the within-class distance in each dimension of subspace. Since the original RSLDA problem is difficult to obtain the closed solution, an equivalent problem is developed which can be solved by an alternative optimization algorithm. For solving the equivalent problem, it is transformed into two sub-problems, one of which can be solved directly, the other is changed into a convex optimization problem, where singular value decomposition is employed instead of matrix inversion. Consequently, performance of algorithm cannot be affected by the non-singularity of covariance matrix. Furthermore, Kernel RSLDA (KRSLDA) is presented to improve the robustness of RSLDA. Additionally, time complexity of RSLDA and KRSLDA are analyzed. Extensive experiments show that RSLDA and KRSLDA outperforms other comparison methods on toy datasets and multiple public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimension reduction is a critical technology for high-dimensional data processing, where Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and its variants are effective supervised methods. However, LDA prefers to feature with smaller variance, which causes feature with weak discriminative ability retained. In this paper, we propose a novel Ratio Sum for Linear Discriminant Analysis (RSLDA), which aims at maximizing discriminative ability of each feature in subspace. To be specific, it maximizes the sum of ratio of the between-class distance to the within-class distance in each dimension of subspace. Since the original RSLDA problem is difficult to obtain the closed solution, an equivalent problem is developed which can be solved by an alternative optimization algorithm. For solving the equivalent problem, it is transformed into two sub-problems, one of which can be solved directly, the other is changed into a convex optimization problem, where singular value decomposition is employed instead of matrix inversion. Consequently, performance of algorithm cannot be affected by the non-singularity of covariance matrix. Furthermore, Kernel RSLDA (KRSLDA) is presented to improve the robustness of RSLDA. Additionally, time complexity of RSLDA and KRSLDA are analyzed. Extensive experiments show that RSLDA and KRSLDA outperforms other comparison methods on toy datasets and multiple public datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karst caves are recently proposed as atmospheric methane sinks in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite of the detection of atmospheric methane‐oxidizing bacteria (atmMOB) in caves, we still know little about their ecology and potential ability of methane oxidation in this ecosystem. To understand atmMOB ecology and their potential in methane consumption, we collected weathered rocks and sediments from three different caves in southwestern China. We determined the potential methane oxidization rates in the range of 1.25 ± 0.08 to 1.87 ± 0.41 ng CH4 g−1 DW h−1, which are comparable to those reported in forest and grassland soils. Results showed that alkaline oligotrophic caves harbour high numbers of atmMOB, particularly upland soil cluster (USC), which significantly correlated with temperature, CH4 and CO2 concentrations. The absolute abundance of USCγ was higher than that of USCα. USCγ‐OPS (open patch soil) and USCγ‐SS (subsurface soil) dominated in most samples, whereas USCα‐BFS (boreal forest soil) only predominated in the sediments near cave entrances, indicating niche differentiation of atmMOB in caves. Overwhelming dominance of homogenous selection in community assembly resulted in convergence of atmMOB communities. Collectively, our results demonstrated the niche differentiation of USC in subsurface alkaline caves and their non‐negligible methane‐oxidizing potential, providing brand‐new knowledge about atmMOB ecology in subsurface biosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The L 1 -regularized regression with Kullback–Leibler divergence (KL- L 1 R) is a popular regression technique. Although many efforts have been devoted to its efficient implementation, it remains challenging when the number of features is extremely large. In this paper, to accelerate KL- L 1 R, we introduce a novel and fast sequential safe feature elimination rule (FER) based on its sparsity, local regularity properties, and duality theory. It takes negligible time to select and delete most redundant features before and during the training process. Only one reduced model needs to be solved, which makes the computational time shortened. To further speed up the reduced model, the Newton coordinate descent method (Newton-CDM) is chosen as a solver. The superiority of FER is safety, i.e., its solution is exactly the same as the original KL- L 1 R. Numerical experiments on three artificial datasets, five real-world datasets, and one handwritten digit dataset demonstrate the feasibility and validity of our FER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drug-target interactions (DTIs) prediction becomes more and more important for accelerating drug research and drug repositioning. Drug-target interaction network is a typical model for DTIs prediction. As many different types of relationships exist between drug and target, drug-target interaction network can be used for modeling drug-target interaction relationship. Recent works on drug-target interaction network are mostly concentrate on drug node or target node and neglecting the relationships between drug-target. Results: We propose a novel prediction method for modeling the relationship between drug and target independently. Firstly, we use different level relationships of drugs and targets to construct feature of drug-target interaction. Then, we use line graph to model drug-target interaction. After that, we introduce graph transformer network to predict drug-target interaction. Conclusions: This method introduces a line graph to model the relationship between drug and target. After transforming drug-target interactions from links to nodes, a graph transformer network is used to accomplish the task of predicting drug-target interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet technology has a great impact on the application and development of libraries. In order to provide users with more convenient and efficient services, this paper puts forward the development strategy of unmanned intelligent digital libraries in the era of "Internet +." Design by IntelliSense module, network transmission module, data storage and analysis module, and intelligent service module of no wisdom digital library service mode, IntelliSense module using RFID technology, close range wireless communication technology, and other Internet technologies to collect the wisdom of unmanned services of all kinds of information in the digital library; use network transmission module of the wireless LAN network, Internet technology such as RFID network to transmit information collected to store in a data storage and analysis module; and at the same time using k-means clustering algorithm in data mining techniques such as analysis of collected data, based on the analysis results provide users with intelligence services such as search, wisdom is recommended. The experimental results show that the developed strategy meets the expected functional requirements, can accurately perceive the location of data, and effectively realize the intelligent service function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve both high gravimetric and volumetric energy densities of lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, it is essential yet challenging to develop low‐porosity dense electrodes along with diminishment of the electrolyte and other lightweight inactive components. Herein, a compact TiO2@VN heterostructure with high true density (5.01 g cm–3) is proposed crafted by ingenious selective nitridation, serving as carbon‐free dual‐capable hosts for both sulfur and lithium. As a heavy S host, the interface‐engineered heterostructure integrates adsorptive TiO2 with high conductive VN and concurrently yields a built‐in electric field for charge‐redistribution at the TiO2/VN interfaces with enlarged active locations for trapping‐migration‐conversion of polysulfides. Thus‐fabricated TiO2@VN–S composite harnessing high tap‐density favors constructing dense cathodes (≈1.7 g cm–3) with low porosity (<30 vol%), exhibiting dual‐boosted cathode‐level peak volumetric‐/gravimetric‐energy‐densities nearly 1700 Wh L−1cathode/1000 Wh kg−1cathode at sulfur loading of 4.2 mg cm−2 and prominent areal capacity (6.7 mAh cm−2) at 7.6 mg cm−2 with reduced electrolyte (<10 µL mg−1sulfur). Particular lithiophilicity of the TiO2@VN is demonstrated as Li host to uniformly tune Li nucleation with restrained dendrite growth, consequently bestowing the assembled full‐cell with high electrode‐level volumetric/gravimetric‐energy‐density beyond 950 Wh L−1cathode+anode/560 Wh kg−1cathode+anode at 3.6 mg cm−2 sulfur loading alongside limited lithium excess (≈50%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of molecular markers is one of the most sensitive, powerful technologies for genetic purity assessment of seed lots. In this study, we aimed to develop a set of insertion and deletion (InDel) markers, through bioinformatics approaches, that may effectively distinguish three representative japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties, Nipponbare, Taichung 65 and Zhonghua11. The published whole-genome sequences of these varieties were aligned using BWA-MEM, followed by manual inspection for InDels of more than ten base pairs in size with the tview function of SAMtools. A set of ten InDel markers were thus identified and then validated by PCR in the three japonica rice varieties and their intercross F 1 hybrids. Results showed that the InDel markers developed in this study could reliably distinguish these three japonica rice varieties. These molecular markers together with the detection method developed here can be applied to DNA-based genetic purity evaluation in rice breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The translation recognition of English long and short sentence information is an important issue to obtain the focus and core of English articles. Based on the deep GLR model, this paper constructs a method framework for English long and short sentence translation and recognition, using different embedding layer parameter initialization methods and using multi-layer computing methods in the sentence decoder. The initial corpus text is segmented and tagged with part-of-speech, then, the part-of-speech tag is appropriately corrected to reduce ambiguity, and then it is manually syntactically tagged. In the simulation process, the English long and short sentence summary and translation components are designed and developed, which can accurately and efficiently obtain the key information of English long and short sentences. The experimental results show that the English long and short sentence translation and recognition method of the deep GLR model improves the accuracy of the model parameters. In terms of model structure, the deep GLR value can be improved by 70.77% by reproducing the multi-layer representation fusion of semantic translation; in terms of data enhancement, the deep GLR value can be increased by 70.35% by means of "back translation," and the improved model is effective. It promotes the translation and recognition generalization ability of English long and short sentences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The lung is one of the most frequent distant metastasis sites in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; however, lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors have not been comprehensively elucidated. This study aimed to identify the homogeneous and heterogeneous lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors in CRC patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Methods: CRC patients registered in the SEER database between 2010 and 2016 were included to analyse risk factors for developing lung metastasis by using univariable and multivariable logistic regression. Patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 were selected to investigate prognostic factors for lung metastasis by conducting Cox regression. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to estimate overall survival outcomes. Results: A total of 10,598 (5.2%) patients with synchronous lung metastasis were diagnosed among 203,138 patients with CRC. The median survival time of patients with lung metastasis was 10.0 months (95% CI 9.6–10.5 months). Older age, unmarried status, uninsured status, poor histological differentiation, more lymphatic metastasis, CEA positivity, liver metastasis, bone metastasis and brain metastasis were lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors. Black patients and those with left colon, rectum, and stage T4 disease were more likely to develop lung metastasis, while patients with right colon cancer and no surgical treatment of the primary tumour had poor survival outcomes. Conclusion: The incidence of lung metastasis in CRC patients was 5.2%. CRC patients with lung metastasis exhibited homogeneous and heterogeneous risk and prognostic factors. These results are helpful for clinical evaluation and individual treatment decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common skin diseases, and it may be associated with skin cancer risk. However, there is a controversy pertaining to whether it implies a greater or decreased risk of skin cancers. We aimed to study the relationship between AD and skin cancer risk. Methods: PubMed and Embase databases from their inception to 4 August 2021 were systematically searched. Results: We evaluated 16 studies involving a total of 9,638,093 participants examining the contribution of AD to skin cancers. Random-effects model was applied to estimate the overall effect sizes. The pooled analysis of 16 studies indicated that AD was significantly associated with an overall increased risk of skin cancer. Subgroup pooled analyses showed that AD was statistically associated with an increased risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). With regard to cohort study, AD was statistically associated with an increased risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC), BCC, and SCC, but not melanoma risk. Sensitivity analysis revealed that excluding each study in turn did not alter the overall combined results. No publication bias existed among the studies. Conclusion: It can be concluded that AD is associated with risk of skin cancers; however, this association still needs to be verified in well-designed, worldwide trials (especially prospective, non-Western studies). The mechanism of AD leading to skin cancer is not clear, and further research is needed to explore the possibility of a potential pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the lack of labels in infrared and visible image fusion network, an infrared and visible image fusion model based on multi‐channel unsupervised convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed in this paper, in order to extract more detailed information through multi‐channel inputs. In contrast to conventional unsupervised fusion network, the proposed network contains three channels for extracting infrared features, visible features and common features of infrared and visible images, respectively. The square loss function is used to train the network. Pairs of infrared and visible images are input to DenseNet to extract as more useful features as possible. A fusion module is designed to fuse the extracted features for testing. Experimental results show that the proposed method can preserve both the clear target of infrared and detailed information of visible images simultaneously. Experiments also demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over the state‐of‐the‐art methods in objective metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The lung is one of the most frequent distant metastasis sites in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; however, lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors have not been comprehensively elucidated. This study aimed to identify the homogeneous and heterogeneous lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors in CRC patients using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.Methods: CRC patients registered in the SEER database between 2010 and 2016 were included to analyse risk factors for developing lung metastasis by using univariable and multivariable logistic regression. Patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 were selected to investigate prognostic factors for lung metastasis by conducting Cox regression. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate overall survival outcomes.Results: A total of 10,598 (5.2%) patients with synchronous lung metastasis were diagnosed among 203,138 patients with CRC. The median survival time of patients with lung metastasis was 10.0 months (95% CI 9.6-10.5 months). Older age, unmarried status, uninsured status, poor histological differentiation, more lymphatic metastasis, CEA positivity, liver metastasis, bone metastasis and brain metastasis were lung metastasis risk and prognostic factors. Black patients and those with left colon, rectum, and stage T4 disease were more likely to develop lung metastasis, while patients with right colon cancer and no surgical treatment of the primary tumour had poor survival outcomes.Conclusion: The incidence of lung metastasis in CRC patients was 5.2%. CRC patients with lung metastasis exhibited homogeneous and heterogeneous risk and prognostic factors. These results are helpful for clinical evaluation and individual treatment decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS), the key enzyme in the branched‐chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine biosynthesis pathway, has gained intensive investigation because it is the target of five different AHAS herbicides widely used to control weeds in farmland. In the present study, the AHAS gene family in Brassica juncea and B. carinata and their progenitor species was characterized in combination with bioinformatics, gene‐specific PCR and qRT‐PCR analyses. The results indicated that B. juncea contains four AHAS genes, of them, BjuAHAS3 and BjuAHAS4 originated from the A genome donor of B. rapa, whereas BjuAHAS6 and BjuAHAS7 from the B genome donor of B. nigra. BjuAHAS3 and BjuAHAS6 are predicted to be functional and constitutively expressed in all vegetative and reproductive tissues in the tested B. juncea accessions. B. carinata contains five AHAS genes, of them, BcaAHAS1, BcaAHAS2, and BcaAHAS5 originated from the C genome donor of B. oleracea, whereas BcaAHAS6 and BcaAHAS7 came from the B genome donor of B. nigra. BcaAHAS1, BcaAHAS2, and BcaAHAS6 are predicted to be functional. BcaAHAS1 and BcaAHAS6 are constitutively expressed in all vegetative and reproductive tissues in the tested B. carinata accessions, however, BcaAHAS2 is mainly expressed in siliques. In addition, translocation events for the AHAS1, AHAS2, and AHAS7 genes occurred when the three amphidiploids species B. napus, B. juncea, and B. carinata were formed by hybridization of their respective diploid species. The findings in this study will provide important basic information for the breeding of herbicide‐resistant varieties in B. juncea and B. carinata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study was aimed at investigating the diagnostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CAR), and systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) for catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) in patients undergoing haemodialysis.Methods: A total of 296 patients undergoing haemodialysis with vascular access were selected and divided into the infected (58 patients) and uninfected (238 patients) groups. Their aetiological and general characteristics were retrospectively collected. The NLR, PLR, CAR, and SIRI were calculated.Results: The NLR, PLR, CAR, and SIRI values in the infected group were significantly higher than those in the uninfected group (P < 0.05). After the anti-infective treatment, the NLR, PLR, CAR, and SIRI values in patients with CRBSI were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). The NLR, CAR, and SIRI showed diagnostic efficacy in patients with CRBSI with cut-off values of 4.485 (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.827, 95%confidence interval (CI) = 0.768-0.887), 0.975 (AUC = 0.836, 95%CI = 0.779-0.892), and 3.390 (AUC = 0.947, 95%CI = 0.919-0.976). The CAR and SIRI values in patients with gram-negative bacterial infection were significantly higher than those with gram-positive bacterial infection (P < 0.05). The AUCs of CAR and SIRI were 0.693 (0.537-0.848) and 0.821 (0.700-0.942) in differentiating gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial infections, respectively.Conclusion: Our results showed SIRI as a novel and efficient indicator for the early diagnosis of CRBSI in patients undergoing haemodialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coptisine (COP) has been shown to exhibit a wide range of anticancer properties, including in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nevertheless, the precise mechanism of COP in the treatment of HCC remains elusive. This study aims to investigate the potential mechanism of action of COP against HCC. By evaluating the anti -HCC activity of COP in different HCC cells lines and in xenografted nude mice, it was found that COP inhibited HCC in vitro and in vivo. Through RNA-Seq analysis, E2F7 was identified as a potential target of COP against HCC, as well as the cell cycle as a possible pathway. The overexpression of E2F7 and the inhibition of CHK1 demonstrated that COP inhibits the activity of HCC and induces G2/M phase arrest of HCC cells by down-regulating E2F7 and influencing the CHK1/CDC25A pathway. Finally, the promoter fragmentation experiments and chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed that COP down-regulated E2F7 by inhibiting the E2F4/NFYA/NFYB transcription factors. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that COP downregulates E2F7 by affecting key transcription factors, thereby inducing cell cycle arrest and inhibits HCC cell growth. This provides further evidence of the efficacy of COP in the treatment of tumors. [Display omitted] • COP induces HCC cell cycle arrest by down-regulating E2F7. • COP induced G2/M arrest in HCC cells by affecting the CHK1/CDC25A pathway. • E2F4, NFYA, and NFYB regulate E2F7 expression and mediate the down-regulation of E2F7 by COP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell assembly and synthesis of calcined polyphosphazene modified NiCo 2 O 4 (NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC) and phosphated petroleum coke (p-PC). [Display omitted] • P-doped porous carbon (p-PC) was designed as the negative electrode. • Heteroatomic polymer carbon modified NiCo 2 O 4 (NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC) was designed as the positive electrode. • The p-PC (−) exhibits excellent cycling stability (99 %, 10,000r) with specific capacitance of 197.5 F g−1. • The assembled NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC (+)//p-PC (−) shows high energy and power density (30.5 Wh kg−1, 800 W kg−1). The inexpensive assembly of high-performance supercapacitors has always been a research hotspot in energy storage. Herein, we used simple procedures and inexpensive raw materials to assemble a high-performance supercapacitor with p-doped porous carbon (p-PC) as the negative electrode and heteroatomic polymer carbon modified NiCo 2 O 4 (NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC) as the positive electrode. The p-PC with excellent electrochemical properties (197.5 F g−1, 99 % after 10,000r) was prepared by chemical modification using cheap petroleum coke as raw material. The NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC was obtained by in-situ coating polyphosphazene on NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires and calcination in air, exhibiting an admirable specific capacitance of 841 F g−1 with suitable cyclic stability (81 %, 8000r). The assembled hybrid supercapacitor NiCo 2 O 4 @PZSC (+)//p-PC (−) embodies high energy, power density and cyclic stability (30.5 Wh kg−1, 800 W kg−1, 90 %, 10,000r). This work opens up a new path to rationally design heteroatom-doped carbon modified binary transition metals for efficient supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterized by chronic gastrointestinal inflammation. In most patients, the disease cycles through periods of remission and exacerbations. The complex etiology involves multiple factors including environmental, genetic, and immune causal elements. Janus Kinase (JAK) family is an essential component of a cytokine-signaling cascade partially responsible for the pathogenesis of UC. Treating UC presents difficulties despite various therapeutic options. Medications that block the JAK-signaling pathway can interfere with the inflammatory pathway of UC and possibly reduce symptoms and frequency of exacerbations. Tofacitinib is an oral pan-JAK inhibitor, primarily of JAK1 and JAK3, that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the chronic treatment of UC in 2018. The following review describes the newly approved Janus kinase inhibitor, tofacitinib, including its pharmacokinetic properties, efficacy and safety data, and potential place in therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hemophilia A (HA, OMIM: 306700) is an X-linked recessive bleeding disorder, caused by defects of the F8 gene which encodes the coagulation factor VIII (FVIII). F8 intron 22 and intron 1 inversion (Inv22 and Inv1) account for ∼45% and 1–5% of severe HA cases, respectively. We herein described an aberrant Inv1 with concomitant large duplication and deletion in a Chinese severe HA patient. Long distance PCR and multiplex PCR were used to detect Inv22 and Inv1. Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) was applied to examine exonic duplication and deletion of the F8 gene. Coverage analysis of read depth data from whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used to analyze the intronic duplication and deletion of the F8 gene. We have identified an aberrant F8 Inv1 in a 1-year-old Chinese severe HA patient showing inversed int1h-1 and normal int1h-2. Coverage analysis of WGS data further illustrated the aberrant Inv1 with concomitant a duplication of 117 kb and a deletion of 1.8 kb. In conclusion, we reported an aberrant Inv1 with concomitant large duplication and deletion in a severe Chinese HA patient. Moreover, WGS provides rapid genetic diagnosis of hereditary disorders with point mutations, deletions, insertions and CNVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The prognosis of metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (mNPC) is highly heterogeneous. As a special stage of distant metastasis of mNPC, quite a few oligometastatic NPC (omNPC) patients can still achieve a long-term survival after treatment. However, there is no uniform standard for the definition of omNPC until now. Methods. We retrospectively analyzed the survival data of 191 patients with de novo mNPC at the Affiliated Cancer Hospital and Institute of Guangzhou Medical University between 2010 and 2017 and specifically analyzed the clinical outcomes associated with the number of metastatic organs/lesions and tried to find a cohort with relatively better prognosis to define as omNPC. Results. The median overall survival (OS) of the entire group of patients was 21.5 months (95% CI 15.0–28.0), and the 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year OS rates were 72.2%, 46.1%, and 34.3%, respectively. Multiple-organ metastases (P < 0.001) and >5 metastatic lesions (P < 0.001) were adverse influencing factors of prognosis, and the number of metastatic lesions (P < 0.001) was the independent factor influencing the prognosis of de novo mNPC. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with ≤5 metastatic lesions were significantly better than those of patients with >5 metastatic lesions. Conclusion. Patients with ≤5 metastatic lesions presented a better survival, and this criterion may be a definition standard for the de novo omNPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein tyrosine phosphatase non‐receptor type 5 (PTPN5), also called striatal‐enriched protein tyrosine phosphatase (STEP), is highly expressed in neurons of the basal ganglia, hippocampus, cortex, and related structures, also in the pituitary. Gonadotropins are the key regulator of the reproduction in mammals. In this study, PTPN5 is detected to express in murine pituitary in a developmental manner. Moreover, the expression of PTPN5 in the pituitary is heavily reduced after ovary removal. Follicle‐stimulating hormone (FSH) secretion in gonadotropes is regulated by PTPN5 via binding GnRH to GnRH‐R. Two parallel signaling pathways, Gs‐protein kinase A (PKA)‐PTPN5 and Gq‐phospholipases C (PLC)‐p38 MAPK‐PTPN5, cooperatively regulate GnRH‐induced FSH secretion. We also show that influx of Ca2+ activates the Ca2+‐dependent phosphatase calcineurin, leading to the phosphorylation and activation of PTPN5. The intracellular release of Ca2+ is reduced via TC2153. In conclusion, blocking or knocking out of PTPN5 reduces the release of FSH in whole pituitary. Mechanically, PTPN5 regulates gonadotropes' function through regulating intracellular calcium homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: High-dimensional image features that underlie COVID-19 pneumonia remain opaque. We aim to compare feature engineering and deep learning methods to gain insights into the image features that drive CT-based for COVID-19 pneumonia prediction, and uncover CT image features significant for COVID-19 pneumonia from deep learning and radiomics framework. Methods: A total of 266 patients with COVID-19 and other viral pneumonia with clinical symptoms and CT signs similar to that of COVID-19 during the outbreak were retrospectively collected from three hospitals in China and the USA. All the pneumonia lesions on CT images were manually delineated by four radiologists. One hundred eighty-four patients (n = 93 COVID-19 positive; n = 91 COVID-19 negative; 24,216 pneumonia lesions from 12,001 CT image slices) from two hospitals from China served as discovery cohort for model development. Thirty-two patients (17 COVID-19 positive, 15 COVID-19 negative; 7883 pneumonia lesions from 3799 CT image slices) from a US hospital served as external validation cohort. A bi-directional adversarial network-based framework and PyRadiomics package were used to extract deep learning and radiomics features, respectively. Linear and Lasso classifiers were used to develop models predictive of COVID-19 versus non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia. Results: 120-dimensional deep learning image features and 120-dimensional radiomics features were extracted. Linear and Lasso classifiers identified 32 high-dimensional deep learning image features and 4 radiomics features associated with COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis (P < 0.0001). Both models achieved sensitivity > 73% and specificity > 75% on external validation cohort with slight superior performance for radiomics Lasso classifier. Human expert diagnostic performance improved (increase by 16.5% and 11.6% in sensitivity and specificity, respectively) when using a combined deep learning-radiomics model. Conclusions: We uncover specific deep learning and radiomics features to add insight into interpretability of machine learning algorithms and compare deep learning and radiomics models for COVID-19 pneumonia that might serve to augment human diagnostic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species identification is fundamentally important within the fields of conservation, biology, biogeography and ecology. Salvia species are herbaceous, biennial or annual, strongly aromatic. Inter-Simple sequence repeats (ISSR) molecular markers were used for evaluate genetic diversity and relationship analysis of 30 Salvia species. Ten selected ISSR primers amplified 116 loci, respectively, of which all were polymorphic. The obtained average polymorphism information content 0.39, average band informativeness 10.5 and the marker index 3.1 revealed high genetic diversity prevailing among Salvia accessions. The dendrogram was constructed based on ISSR separated the individuals into sub-clusters in accordance with their species. Our results indicated that ISSR markers can be used as a reliable and informative technique for evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships among Salvia species. The objectives of present study are: 1) can ISSR markers identify Salvia species, 2) what is the genetic of these taxa in Iran, and 3) to investigate the species inter-relationship? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes the tight sandstone of the lower sub‐member of the first member of the Eocene Shahejie Formation (Es1x) in the Suning area, Raoyang Sag, Bohai Bay Basin. Furthermore, it determines the rock type of the middle‐deep tight sandstone through lithologic profiling, core observation and log data analysis. The genetic control factors of tight sandstone in the study area are analysed using conventional thin section, pore‐casted thin section and scanning electron microscope, and the characteristics and genetic control factors of tight sandstone reservoirs are summarized. The research results show that the tight sandstones in this area are primarily feldspathic sandstone and feldspathic lithic sandstone, with high quartz contents, around 61.50%. The average porosity of the reservoir in the study area is 4.69%, and the average permeability is 2.92 mD, which are characteristics of low‐porosity and low‐permeability reservoirs. Through research, it has been found that the distribution of sedimentary facies and diagenesis in the study area control the development and distribution of 'sweet spots'. Both compaction and cementation reduce the physical properties of the reservoir, while dissolution can increase porosity, thereby increasing the physical properties of the reservoir; dissolution resulted in an increase of approximately 3.57%–3.69% in the porosity of the tight reservoir in the study area, with an average porosity increase of 3.63%, and is the main controlling factor for the development of 'sweet spots' in the reservoir. The results provide an important basis for guiding the exploration and development of tight sandstone oil and gas in the lower sub‐member of the first member of the Eocene Shahejie Formation (Es1x)in the Suning area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on spatial correlation analysis and the dynamic spatial autoregressive model, this paper took AQI and six types of pollutants, including PM2.5, PM10,SO2, etc., as the research objects to explore the time-space agglomeration evolution characteristics and related synergistic factors of air pollution in '2 +26 +3' cities of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas from 2013 to 2018. This study found that: (1) Air pollution presented a complex evolutionary trend. AQI, PM2.5 and PM10 were mainly presented as local agglomeration of high-high type, while SO2, CO and O3 having agglomeration of both high-high type and low-low type; PM2.5, PM10 and SO2 had a high degree of global correlation, while CO and O3 were relatively weak; the local and global correlation of NO2 were not significant. (2) The 'space-time scale effect' of air pollution was very significant. As far as this region was concerned, economic and social development factors mainly had a positive impact, while impact of ecological protection factors were mainly negative, and the previous contribution was significantly higher than that of the latter. Comprehensive improvement of the air quality in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas can be promoted from four aspects: The first is to coordinate the 'unity of opposites' relationship between appeals for local development and objectives of regional collaborative governance, and to establish and improve the accounting and transfer payment (compensation) mechanism of interest difference in the region. The second is to coordinate the overall and local 'common but differentiated' joint defense and joint control mechanisms, to build a multi-center, compound joint governance system, and to guide refined governance with special responsibility goals. The third is to promote the construction of a regional 'three-dimensional integration' collaborative system, and to solve the 'greatest common divisor' of various regions to reach a solid cooperative alliance from the aspects of main functional zoning and clean capacity replacement. The fourth is to improve the reform of local government performance and promotion system, and to strengthen its internal motivation and sense of responsibility to be integrated into the regional coordination system by expanding the dimensions of environmental governance assessment and reducing the weight of economic indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Melkersson‐Rosenthal syndrome (MRS) is a rare neuro‐mucocutaneous disease. In addition to the traditional clinical triad, there is also a diversity of clinical signs, and it may be related to other systemic diseases. Methods: In the present study, we report a case of MRS with endocrine disorders that exhibits extraordinary therapeutic efficiency by using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), explore whether there is an internal connection between MRS and endocrine disorders, and discuss the mechanism of the therapeutic efficiency of using HCQ. The hypothesis proposed for the first time is that MRS may essentially be a systemic granulomatous disease. Results: The physical examination revealed orofacial swelling and fissured tongue. The histopathologic examination showed epithelioid granulomas. Combined with the other examination, this case was diagnosed as incomplete MRS. HCQ and local drugs were introduced. The patient achieved clinical recovery and psychological cure by the 18‐week follow‐up, and the 1‐year follow‐up found no reactivation of MRS. Moreover, the levels of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic were within normal ranges. Conclusions: After the drug therapy was targeted at granuloma, not only did all of the symptoms related to MRS disappear, but the endocrine system also returned to normal. It is speculated that the endocrine disorder in this patient may be related to MRS. We further propose the first‐time hypothesis that MRS may essentially be a systemic granulomatous disease. It provides a new medication method with high‐level efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated an association between adenovirus viremia and disease severity in immunocompromised children. However, few studies have focused on this association in immunocompetent children. This study explored the association between adenovirus viremia and adenovirus pneumonia severity in immunocompetent children.Methods: We performed a retrospective, observational study of immunocompetent children with adenovirus pneumonia admitted to Shenzhen Children's Hospital in Shenzhen, China. Pneumonia was classified as severe or mild based on the Chinese guideline for the classification of pneumonia severity. Serum samples from all the children included in the study were tested for adenovirus DNA with a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, and disease severity were compared between children with severe and mild pneumonia.Results: A total of 111 immunocompetent children with adenovirus pneumonia (60 severe, 51 mild) were included. The median age was 40 months, and 64 patients were male. Five patients were admitted to the intensive care unit, and two underwent endotracheal intubation. All patients were discharged after recovery or improvement. Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression analysis showed that leukocytosis (OR = 1.1; 95% CI: 1.0 to 1.2; P = 0.033), co-infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae (OR = 5.0; 95% CI: 2.1 to 12.3; P <  0.001), and high blood viral load (OR = 1.5; 95% CI: 1.2 to 2.0; P = 0.001) may be risk factors for severe adenovirus pneumonia.Conclusions: Leukocytosis, co-infection with Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and high blood viral load may be risk factors for severe adenovirus pneumonia in immunocompetent children. Blood viral load may predict pneumonia severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying overlapping community structure can help people understand complex network. In this paper, we propose a link community detection method combined with network pruning and local community expansion (NPLCE). Firstly, we delete unattractive links and transform pruned graph into line graph. Secondly, we calculate score matrix on line graph through pagerank algorithm. Then, we search seed nodes and expand local communities from the seed nodes. Finally, we merge those communities and transform them back into node communities. The experiment results on several real-world networks demonstrate the performance of our algorithm in terms of accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: T cell-redirecting bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) are emerging as a potent cancer therapy that crosslinks tumor cells and T cells by simultaneously binding to tumor-associated antigen and CD3ϵ. However, immune inhibitory molecules can be remarkably upregulated after BsAbs treatment, leading to a suppressive tumor microenvironment and treatment resistance. This can be partially reversed by combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors. In our previous work, we successfully constructed the recombinant protein iRGD-antiCD3 and demonstrated that it promoted antitumor efficacy of transferred T cells by promoting T cell activation and infiltration. Methods: We detected the levels of both PD-1 and PD-L1 as resistance to iRGD-antiCD3 treatment. Using cord blood-derived T cells, we assessed the activation and effects of iRGD-antiCD3 combined with PD-1 as evidenced by activation markers, Th1/Th2-cytokines, and killing capability against tumor cells in vitro. Moreover, to better mimic the physiological characteristics of in vivo solid tumors, we generated 3D spheroids from target cell lines. Spheroids were stained with a Viability/Cytotoxicity Assay Kit and examined by confocal microscopy to study the in vitro antitumor effect of T cells co-administered with combination iRGD-antiCD3 and PD-1 blockade. The mouse peritoneal metastatic gastric tumor model was employed. The synergistic antitumor effect and safety profiles in vivo were evaluated by tumor and body weight of tumor-bearing mice. Results: We found that expression of both PD-1 and PD-L1 were increased as resistance to iRGD-antiCD3 treatment. We found that PD-1 blockade partially restored T cell activation as evidenced by elevated activation markers, Th1-cytokines, and killing capability against tumor cells in vitro. The combination of PD-1 blockade consistently and significantly increased cord blood-derived T cell cytotoxicity against 3D tumor spheroids. In vivo, we observed synergistic antitumor activity without obvious side effects. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that combining iRGD-antiCD3 with PD-1 blockade could further improve antitumor efficacy of T cells, and this strategy holds great potential for the treatment of solid malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence, risk, and prognostic factors for synchronous liver metastasis (LM) in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to construct nomogram for predicting occurrence and prognosis of synchronous LM. Methods: A total of 203,998 CRC patients who were registered in the SEER database between 2010 and 2016 were included. Logistic regression was used to analyze risk factors and Kaplan-Meier was used to estimate the overall survival of CRC patients with LM. Potential prognostic factors were identified by multivariable Cox regression. For predicting the risk for development and prognosis in CRC patients with LM, we constructed nomogram and the predictive performance was estimated by the receiver operating characteristics cure, the concordance index, and calibration curve. Results: In total, 15.3% of the CRC patients (N = 31,288) had synchronous LM. Male gender, black, uninsured status, left colon, T4/T1, and bone and lung metastases were positively associated with synchronous LM risk. The 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year overall survival rate was 49.1%, 18.4%, and 9.2%, respectively. Older age, male gender, black, uninsured status, poor histological differentiation, lymphatic metastasis, T4/T1, positive carcinoembryonic antigen, and lung, bone, and brain metastases were associated with the overall survival. Nomogram was constructed to predict the development and prognosis of synchronous LM and both of them were proved to have good calibration and discrimination. Conclusion: LM is highly prevalent in CRC patients. Nomogram basing on the risk and prognostic factors for synchronous LM was proved to have good performance for predicting the probability of LM occurrence and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many real-world problems can be abstracted into graph classification problems. Recently, graph convolutional networks have achieved great success in the task of node classification and link prediction. However, when using graph convolution network to process the task of graph classification, either global topology information or local information is ignored. Therefore, designing graph convolutional networks to improve the accuracy of graph classification has attracted more and more attention. Inspired by the use of convolutional neural networks to process graph-structured data, we put forward a new spatial convolutional neural network architecture for graph classification. To be specific, we first design a comprehensive weighting method to measure the significance of vertices in the graph based on multiple indicators to choose the central node sequence. Then, the normalization process of the graph is realized by constructing the same size neighborhood graphs for the central vertices. After that, the structural characteristics of the graph are extracted from both local and global aspects. Finally, the tensors obtained after the above steps are respectively input into the following two spatial convolutional neural network architectures to perform classification, one is a simple CNN structure, which has only two convolution layers, one dense layer and one softmax layer. The other is to modify the architecture of CNN, and the channel concatenation layer is introduced to determine the classification result of the entire graph according to the category of the neighborhood graphs. Experimental results on two kinds of real-world datasets, bioinformatics and social network datasets, indicate that our approach obtains competitive results and is superior to some classic kernels and similar deep learning-based algorithms on 6 out of 8 benchmark data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is recommended to prevent potential neurological injury or intrauterine foetal death (IUFD) of the co-twin(s) in complicated monochorionic (MC) pregnancies. However, the impacts of various indications on the pregnancy outcome following RFA remain unclear. This study aimed to determine how the indications influence the perinatal outcomes in complicated MC pregnancies undergoing radiofrequency ablation.Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study performed in a single centre. All consecutive MC pregnancies treated with RFA between July 2011 and July 2019 were included. The adverse perinatal outcomes and the survival rate were analysed based on various indications. The continuous variables with and without normal distribution were compared between the groups using Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U test, respectively, and for categorical variables, Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used. P < 0.05 indicated a significant difference.Results: We performed 272 RFA procedures in 268 complicated MC pregnancies, including 60 selective intrauterine growth restriction (sIUGR), 64 twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), 12 twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence (TRAPs), 66 foetal anomaly and 66 elective foetal reduction (EFR) cases. The overall survival rate of the co-twin was 201/272 (73.9%). The overall technical successful rate was determined at 201/263 (76.7%). The IUFD rate in the co-twin was 20/272 (7.4%). The TTTS group had recorded the lowest survival rate (37/64, 57. 8%), and the survival rate was significantly correlated with Quintero stages (P = 0.029). Moreover, the sIUGR III subgroup had a lower survival rate compared with sIUGR II (55.6%, versus 84.3%). The subgroup of foetal anomaly of gastroschisis or exomphalos had the highest IUFD rate (4/10, 40%), followed by sIUGR III (2/9, 22.2%) and dichorionic triamniotic (DCTA) subgroup (8/46, 17.9%). In EFR group, eight IUFD cases were all coming from the DCTA subgroup and received RFA before 17 weeks.Conclusions: The perinatal outcome of RFA was correlated with the indications, with the lowest survival rate in TTTS IV and the highest IUFD incidence in abdominal wall defect followed by sIUGR III. Elective RFA after 17 weeks may prevent IUFD in DCTA pregnancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The layered structural black phosphorus (BP), as an emerging two-dimensional material, has aroused great interest due to its intriguing electrochemical properties, but its poor stability greatly limits its practical application. This work utilized a unique heteroatomic carbon microsphere (PZSC) obtained by carbonization of polyphosphazene microspheres as PZSC (-), and modified BP with PZSC using a simple ultrasound assisted liquid exfoliation technique to obtain BP/PZSC (+). The BP modified with PZSC greatly improved the cycling stability and specific capacitance, displaying a high specific capacitance of 843.1 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. The assembled hybrid BP/PZSC (+) // PZSC (-) supercapacitor exhibits high specific capacitance, power and energy density (57.1 F g−1, 799.9 W kg−1, 20.3 Wh kg−1) with excellent cycle stability (96%, 5000r). This work effectively promotes the application of BP-based and heteroatomic carbon-based materials in the field of supercapacitors. [Display omitted] • Heteroatomic carbon microspheres (PZSC) are synthesized by high-temperature carbonizing polyphosphazene microspheres. • The black phosphorus (BP) is modified by PZSC through ultrasound-assisted liquid phase exfoliation to obtain BP/PZSC. • The modification of PZSC greatly improves the conductivity, specific capacitance, and cycling stability of BP. • A hybrid supercapacitor is designed using PZSC as the negative electrode and BP/PZSC as the positive electrode. • The assembled BP/PZSC (+)/PZSC (-) exhibits high power and energy density with excellent cycle stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous metastasis from a primary visceral malignancy is a relatively uncommon clinical manifestation that occurs as an initial presentation in 1% to 12% of patients with internal malignancies. Additionally, cutaneous metastases are often late signs of an internal malignancy, and in very rare cases they may occur at the same time or before the primary cancer has been detected. Metastasis to the skin has a poor prognosis and is often a sign of widespread malignant tumors. In the present study, we report a 72-year-old male who presented with multiple rapidly growing subcutaneous nodules. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) revealed a hypermetabolic concentration of radiotracer in the left lower lung and multiple organ metastases associated with multiple skin masses. Biopsy of one of the skin nodules and gene detection indicated metastatic adenocarcinoma consistent with a primary lung origin with a BRAF mutation. BRAF mutations are emerging therapeutic targets in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as they are present in 2– 4% of NSCLC cases. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report to show that BRAF-mutant lung adenocarcinoma can be associated with cutaneous metastasis. Early diagnosis and individualized treatment strategies may prolong patient survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In highly urbanized areas, urban redevelopment is required to achieve both ecological and economic goals. However, how to balance the layout between built-up and ecological land is one of many challenges facing urban planners. Recent studies have proposed effective decision-making models based on ecology–economy comparative advantages (EECA), but these have not been applied to planning the redevelopment of urban land at the site level. Using the urban district of Zhanjiang as a research case, this study established a region-site dual-level model from the EECA perspective to optimize the layout between ecological and built-up land in land redevelopment planning. The findings indicated that better optimization results were obtained from the EECA perspective than ecological or economic suitability evaluations, which are often used in urban planning. This study is an extension of existing research on the optimization of different land-use type layouts, which will serve as a foundation for planners to obtain a basic understanding of the optimal land-use layout in land redevelopment based on EECA and evaluate regional development goals from the perspective of land resource redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the absence of a virus nucleic acid real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and experienced radiologists, clinical diagnosis is challenging for viral pneumonia with clinical symptoms and CT signs similar to that of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We developed an end-to-end automatic differentiation method based on CT images to identify COVID-19 pneumonia patients in real time. Methods: From January 18 to February 23, 2020, we conducted a retrospective study and enrolled 201 patients from two hospitals in China who underwent chest CT and RT-PCR tests, of which 98 patients tested positive for COVID-19 (118 males and 83 females, with an average age of 42 years). Patient CT images from one hospital were divided among training, validation and test datasets with an 80%:10%:10% ratio. An end-to-end representation learning method using a large-scale bi-directional generative adversarial network (BigBiGAN) architecture was designed to extract semantic features from the CT images. The semantic feature matrix was input for linear classifier construction. Patients from the other hospital were used for external validation. Differentiation accuracy was evaluated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: Based on the 120-dimensional semantic features extracted by BigBiGAN from each image, the linear classifier results indicated that the area under the curve (AUC) in the training, validation and test datasets were 0.979, 0.968 and 0.972, respectively, with an average sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 91%. The AUC for external validation was 0.850, with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 75%. Publicly available architecture and computing resources were used throughout the study to ensure reproducibility. Conclusion: This study provides an efficient recognition method for coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia, using an end-to-end design to implement targeted and effective isolation for the containment of this communicable disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine whether intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is associated with improved outcomes compared with conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) for patients with nonsevere male factor infertility.Design: Retrospective cohort.Setting: University-affiliated reproductive endocrinology unit.Patient(s): Couples who received their first-cycle embryo transfer without severe oligoasthenozoospermia (OA) between January 2012 and December 2016 were included in this study.Intervention(s): Six subgroup analyses were performed according to the proposed indications for the use of ICSI as follows: non-male factor infertility, advanced maternal age (≥38 years), unexplained infertility, low oocyte yield (≤6), mild OA, and moderate OA.Main Outcome Measure(s): Live birth rates and selected perinatal outcomes.Result(s): ICSI resulted in live birth rates similar to those achieved with IVF (41.68% vs. 44.31%). There were no significant differences in the incidences of gestational diabetes mellitus, hypertension disorder of pregnancy, placental previa, postpartum hemorrhage, cesarean delivery, fetal macrosomia, small for gestational age, large for gestational age, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, and congenital anomalies between the two groups. Subgroup analyses showed that ICSI resulted in a lower rate of NICU admission in couples with moderate OA.Conclusion(s): Our results suggested that routine use of ICSI for all causes of infertility did not result in better pregnancy and perinatal outcomes compared with conventional IVF in the first cycle. ICSI might be associated with a lower risk of NICU admission when used in couples with moderate OA. Large prospective studies are required to validate our current findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]